Learning

Learning isn't just studying and focusing your attention on a particular set of information. It's something that we are born to do, something that will help us survive. It's why we slam our hands on the snooze button automatically when we wake up to an alarm. We are conditioned and hitting the snooze button when hearing the buzzing noise is the response we have created.

Key Terms

Learning - a relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience.

*Associative Learning - learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning).

Behaviorism - the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2).

*Classical Conditioning - a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neutral stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus (US) begins to produce a response that anticipates and prepares for the unconditioned stimulus. Also called Pavlovian or respondent conditioning.*Unconditioned Response - in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.*Unconditioned Stimulus - in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response.

*Conditioned Stimulus - in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.

*Acquisition - The initial stage in classical conditioning; the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

*Extinction - the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced.

*Spontaneous Recovery - the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.

*Generalization - the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.

*Discrimination - in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.

*Operant Conditioning - a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.

Respondent Behavior - behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus; Skinner's term for behavior learned through classical conditioning.

Skinner Box - Named for its developer, B.F. Skinner, a box that contains a responding mechanism and a device capable of delivering a consequence to an animal in the box whenever it makes the desired response.

*Shaping - an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.

Reinforcer - in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

*Positive Reinforcement - increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.

*Primary Reinforcer - an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.

*Conditioned Reinforcer - A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as secondary reinforcer.

Continuous Reinforcement - reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

*Partial Reinforcement - reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement.

*Fixed-Ratio Schedule - in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

*Variable-Ratio Schedule - in operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforment that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

*Fixed Interval Schedule - In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

*Variable Interval Schedule - in operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response at unpredicatble time intervals.

*Punishment - an event that decreases the behavior that it follows.

Cognitive Map - a mental representation of the layout of one's environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.

*Latent Learning - learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

*Overjustification Effect - The effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do.

*Observational Learning - learning by observing others.

Modeling - the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

People to Know

Albert Bandura: believed that aggression is learned through a process called behavior modeling. He believed that individuals do not actually inherit violent tendencies, but they modeled them after three principles (Bandura, 1976: p.204).

Ivan Pavlov:a Russian scientist most famous for describing the psychological phenomenon referred to as a "conditioned response".

B. F. Skinner: believed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. He called this approach operant conditioning.

Study Tips

Practicing identifying the UCS, UCR, NS, CS, and the CR will help with the understanding of learning. Make sure if you can't do this that you ask someone to go over it with you. If you don't it could lose you a question on the AP test.

Psych Sim 5 Activities

Pictures for Visual Association

Tricky Spots

Classical Conditioning

It's classic for a dog to salivate when he eats food. It's natural. So when he hears the bell with his food, he is conditioned to produce the original NATURAL response.

Operant Conditioning

If we operate something or do something like pushing a button in order to get food it's manual. If you know that pushing the button will get you food, you will push the button. It produces a VOLUNTARY action in order to get a response.

In classical conditioning, the reinforcement comes BEFORE the actual action and is just an association between two things. In operant conditioning, the reinforcement comes AFTER the action and the action is made in order to get the thing that comes after it.